English sterling silver quarter repeating pocket watch Circa 1690

Silver open faced verge pocket watch
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An English sterling silver quarter repeating pocket watch, circa 1690. The case has a loose-ring pendant, the back finely engraved with foliage and flowers, and the border finely pierced and engraved with inhabited foliage. Silver champleve dial with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track with five-minute Arabic markers and blued steel beetle and poker hands. Hinged gilt brass under a cover, full plate with tulip pillars, fusee with chain, verge escapement, plain steel three-arm balance with flat balance spring and gilt brass clock pierced and engraved with scrolling foliage. Repeating on gongs by depressing the pendant. Dial and movement signed.
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Diameter: 50 mm
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Signed: Daniel Quare  London
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Accompanied by a key
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Daniel Quare was a highly esteemed English watchmaker. Born circa 1647 in Somerset and died August 1724. He was admitted to the Clockmakers’ Company in 1671, becoming a master in 1708. Quare established himself as an important horological innovator by inventing a type of repeating work around 1680. Whilst he was developing his repeating mechanism, his rival, Edward Barlow, was developing his own version. Barlow had invented the rack form of striking in 1676 and, in 1685, Thomas Tompion made a watch for Barlow that incorporated the latter’s repeating system. Three years later, in 1688, Quare and Barlow presented their different forms of repeating watches to King James II so that he might declare which he regarded the superior. The King favoured Quare’s form, noting that Barlow’s required two pushers, one for the hour strike and one for the quarters, whilst Quare’s single push-piece activated both the hours and quarters.